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Cameraman John Kooistra, who was also captured, added: 'I made amends with my maker. I made good with my maker. I made good with
myself. I was prepared to die many times.'

But amid their fear, they worked together to stay positive, Engel said.

'We weren't allowed to speak but if
you peek underneath the blindfold, you can see if there's a guard in the
room,' he said. 'We tried to joke around a little. We passed messages
to each other.'

Safe: Engel and his crew exit a car after crossing back into Turkey on Tuesday morning

Welcome: Engel, pictured as he is welcomed into the country, said he would 'rather forget' the ordeal

Balkiz said when they
were captured on Thursday, there was a 'moment of disbelief' but after
years working together, they were able to keep each others' spirits high.

'It did help a lot that we were together,' he said.

While the captors have not not identified by NBC News, Engel said he believed they were from Shabiha, a pro-government organisation trained by Iranian revolutionaries and allied with Hezbollah.

'They were talking openly about their loyalty to the government,' he said. 'We were told that they wanted to exchange us for four Iranian agents and two Lebanese people. They captured us in order to carry out this exchange.'

They were on their way to make the exchange at a Hezbollah stronghold when they were sprung.

'We're in good health. We're happy to
be here,' he said. 'But while we're obviously happy, there are still
many people not at liberty to do this sort of thing.'

Relief: Another video shows him embracing an unidentified man. The NBC team was held for five days

Happiness: They were freed as their captors came across a rebel checkpoint and a firefight ensued

'THE THUGS OF ASSAD'S REGIME': WHO ARE THE SHABIHA?

Richard Engel told NBC that he and his crew were abducted by the Shabiha.

The organisation, the name of which translates literally as 'thugs' in Arabic, is a network of civilian militants who act as the unofficial police force of the regime for Bashar al-Assad.

They were established as early as the 1970s by the brother and cousin of the former president Hafez al-Assad, father of Bashar.

They are backed by the Islamic militant group Hezbollah and by Iran, and Engel explained they were trained by Iranian revolutionaries.

Over the course of the unrest, the Shabiha have been accused not only of killing and beating people at demos, but also of carrying out a campaign of intimidation including executions and drive-by shootings.

Shabiha gangs also run protection rackets, weapons- and drug-smuggling rings, and other criminal enterprises, the BBC reported.

Engel had covertly entered Syria several
times this year to report on the insurgency fighting President Bashar
al-Assad and had last appeared on television on Thursday in a taped
report.

After their kidnap on Thursday, the four men were transported to a location believed
to be near the town of Ma'arrat Misrin.

On Monday, Engel and his crew were being taken to a new location when their kidnappers ran into checkpoint manned by a Syrian rebel group, Ahrar al-Sham, NBC News said in a statement.

Following a firefight - and the
deaths of two of their captors - Engel and his crew were freed. The
network had been unable to contact them until their liberation.

'After
being kidnapped and held for five days inside Syria by an unknown
group, NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and his
production crew members have been freed unharmed. We are pleased to
report they are safely out of the country,' the network said on Tuesday.

It added that there was no claim of
responsibility, no contact with the kidnappers and no request for ransom
during the time Engel and members of his production crew were missing.

Engel and his crew stayed in Syria until Tuesday morning when they returned to Turkey, the network said. While they were blindfolded and bound, they were not otherwise physically harmed.

At work: The chief foreign correspondent has lived in the Middle East for more than 15 years

Prominent: Engel, 39, is pictured at the end of a reporting trip in Syria in July 2012

NBC News added that it 'expressed its gratitude to those who worked to gather information and secure the release of our colleagues'.

While the Turkish media had been
circulating the report for several days, American outlets were operating under a news blackout requested by NBC until Monday.

NBC had sought to keep the crew's disappearance secret while they tried to find out where they were, and news channels did not report on it in fear it could further endanger the men.

Engels, who is divorced and doesn't have children, was promoted to NBC News's chief foreign correspondent in 2008. He runs NBC’s Middle East bureau and has been reporting on the ongoing conflict between rebels and forces backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Engel is widely regarded for his coverage of wars, revolutions and political transitions around the world over the last 15 years.

Support: NBC colleague David Shuster tweeted his concern after hearing Monday that Engels was missing

Achiever: In 2009, Engel received a 'Peabody' during the 68th annual George Foster Peabody Awards

Most recently, he was recognized for
his outstanding reporting on the 2011 revolution in Egypt, the conflict
in Libya and unrest throughout the Arab world.

Engel,
one of the only western journalists to cover the entire war in Iraq,
joined NBC News in May 2003. He previously worked as for ABC News, most notably during the initial U.S. invasion
of Iraq.

His work has received numerous awards, including five News & Documentary Emmy Awards.

Engel has lived in the Middle East
since graduating from Stanford University in 1996 with a B.A. in
international relations. He speaks and reads fluent Arabic, which he
learned while living in Cairo.

Engel has also traveled extensively in
the Middle East and can comfortably transition between several Arabic
dialects spoken across the Arab world. He is also fluent in Italian and
Spanish.

He is the author of two books, A Fist in the Hornet’s Nest
and War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq, which chronicle his
experiences covering the Iraq war.